City Rising | KCET

City Rising is a multi-platform documentary series in partnership with The California Endowment that has examined gentrification — its historical roots, economic role and social consequences. In this season, City Rising investigates informal economies — how workers who labor off the books, sometimes hiding in plain sight, are organizing to find pathways for legalization and protection.

City Rising illuminates the journey of California's neighborhoods advocating for responsible development. The documentary series highlights individuals facing discrimination but fighting to change policy and improve upward mobility for their communities. The effects of these movements are far-reaching, and their voices will ultimately impact the social health of communities across the country and beyond.

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From the beginning of our nation’s history our laws, institutions and social norms have contributed to the creation of a segmented or dual economy. Many people — including people of color, women and immigrants — were excluded from the benefits of society, forcing them to find alternative ways to make a living in a parallel economy.

Dubbed "Iowa by the Sea," an influx of white Midwesterners migrated to Long Beach, part of the two million people that moved to Los Angeles County between 1920 and 1930. These out-of-towners largely shaped the city.

While Mexican immigrants continue to be demonized and characterized as “criminals,” “drug dealers,” “rapists,” “illegal aliens” and “invaders” by American leaders and millions of citizens, they have essentially become “foreigners in their own land.

Like California as a whole, the Coachella Valley is faced with a serious housing crisis and an urgent demand for more affordable housing, as evidenced by the fact that more than half of renter households in the region

California's wildfires are more severe and deadlier than ever before. Debates are raging as to what to do, who will pay for billions of dollars in damage and what can be done to lessen the destruction as California adjusts to its new normal.